South Korea’s privacy regulator has fined Meta Platforms 21.62 billion won ($15.67 million) for collecting sensitive data from around 980,000 Facebook users and sharing it with advertisers without proper consent.
Following a four-year investigation, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) found that Meta gathered personal details such as users’ political views, religious beliefs, and other personal and sensitive data from July 2018 to March 2022.
The PIPC reported that Meta analyzed user activity, like the pages they liked and ads they clicked, to classify them under categories like religious preference, political stance, and other sensitive themes. This data was then shared with around 4,000 advertisers. Additionally, Meta did not put enough security measures in place for inactive accounts, allowing hackers to misuse these pages and compromise accounts of at least 10 South Korean users.
This fine is part of several penalties South Korea has imposed on Meta recently. Last year, Meta and Google were fined a combined 100 billion won ($72 million) for using user data without consent, and in 2020, Meta faced another fine of 6.7 billion won ($4.8 million) for sharing user information with third parties. Meta’s South Korean office stated it would “carefully review” the decision but didn’t give further comments. South Korea’s privacy laws strongly protect personal information, especially regarding beliefs, political views, and lifestyle choices.
